


Whatever It Takes

by SpicyReyes



Series: Why Do Fools Fall In Love? [10]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Carl Being Markus' Dad, CyberLife (Detroit: Become Human), Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone is snarky, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Multi, Politics, Revolution, Wholesome Love And Support
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-06-01 09:25:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15140078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes
Summary: Despite all their victories, independence is never truly achieved overnight.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> you guys!!! are so amazing!!! the comments on my fics in this series are fueling me  
> I took a couple days off writing because i had a few bad days at work and just wasnt in the mood but now im back, writing gay shit again and planning the Plot of this series a bit further  
> also, regarding the tags:   
> \- Simon is gay for Markus and Markus has no idea that they aren't just Good Bros  
> \- Kara, Luther, and Alice will show up at some point   
> \- Carl has adopted the Jericho leaders and will fight you over them without hesitation

CONTACT REQUEST: RK800 #313 248 317.

Markus frowned at the alert in his vision, confused at first, taking a moment to recognize Connor’s identifier. He’d never noticed that their model numbers were only a single digit off from each other, and wondered how much that signified. Markus had been a custom prototype, as had Connor, so maybe that was the link.

“Markus?”

His attention returned to the room, where his friends were watching him warily, all gathered around the living area of Carl’s home. The androids of Jericho had mostly dispersed, going off to begin their own lives as they could, but Simon, Josh, and North had all stuck by him as he chose to return to Carl’s side. 

Now, they were gathered as they were most days, Carl making his way through an early dinner while the rest of them hung out. Or, they had been, until Markus had suddenly cut off speech and started staring into the distance, prompting four concerned looks turned his way. 

“Connor is calling me,” Markus explained. 

“Well,” Carl said. “Aren’t you going to answer?”

The man had a point. Giving a quick nod, Markus shut his eyes, accepting the call.

_ Good, you answered,  _ Connor’s voice came through.  _ I need your help. _

_ Anything,  _ Markus replied immediately.  _ Whatever I can manage, anyway.  _

_ I want to destroy CyberLife. _

Markus blinked. 

_ Well, not necessarily,  _ Connor continued.  _ It can’t be allowed to keep producing mindless slave androids, and it can’t get away with the things it’s done to us through the years. It has to be brought down. _

_ We can’t just destroy it,  _ Markus pointed out.  _ We need them for biocomponents, and blue blood, and any other maintenance we need.  _

_ No, we don’t.  _ Connor’s voice sounded rather self-satisfied, if not outright smug.  _ Where are you? This is best discussed in person.  _

Markus gave over Carl’s address with only the slightest hesitation. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Connor, it was just…

…Well, he wasn’t entirely certain the other android hadn’t completely lost it, honestly.

  
  
  
  


“So  _ you’re  _ Connor,” Carl greeted, when the android arrived. “Markus has told me a bit about you, but the general opinion seems to be you’re a mystery.”

“Hello,” Connor replied. “You are Carl Manfred. You were the one Kamski made Markus for.”

“Ah, Elijah,” Carl sighed. “A good man, for all his faults. He never could accept the thought that my time was running out.” He smiled up at Connor. “He tried to get me to be his guinea pig for some sort of human augmentation, trying to ‘fix’ me. I told him to shove it, and what does he do? Builds me a whole damn android.” With a wink, he added, “Best thing that old prick has done in his entire life.”

The insight into Markus’ history was interesting, and Connor filed it away for further pondering when he had the time. For now, though, he was on a mission.

“Kamski is actually the reason I’m here,” he confessed. “I was just at his house. I went to see him regarding the future of CyberLife.” 

“So you said,” Markus cut in. “We’re all ready to hear the story, if you’re ready to tell it.”

“Kamski’s android-...” Connor started, then stopped, rephrasing. “Kamski’s  _ assistant,  _ Chloe, gave me access to all his data files on CyberLife. Included were the production details.” He shifted his weight between his feet, restless with the anxiety and excitement of his tentative plan. “If we could utilize those, we could make our own manufacturing center. A hospital, of sorts, specifically for the care of androids. We wouldn’t need them anymore.”

“You want to hijack CyberLife’s production lines,” Markus summarized. “We would be the ones in control, then. The ones making the androids, and the ones fixing them.”

“We could cut the last thread that tethers us down as a product,” Connor said. 

“We can’t be free if we’re still someone’s property,” North ventured softly, to Markus’ side. “Even just as a technicality. As long as CyberLife operates, we’re in danger.”

“Shutting them down would have a massive ripple effect,” Josh pointed out. “People would lose their jobs, the city’s infrastructure would fall apart...we’d devastated Detroit.”

“...Not necessarily,” Simon said. At the prompting stares he got from the others, he continued, “If we start our own production lines, we’ll need people who know what they’re doing. There have to be CyberLife employees that recognize us as full living beings - there’s no reason to punish them for the sins of their employer. Things we did when we were programmed to obey are not our fault. Things people did to survive shouldn’t count against them, either.”

“They had the choice to speak up and they didn’t,” North countered. “They were happy to go along with it, all this time.”

“You don’t know that,” Josh said. “Think about it. Jobs in this city are scarce because of androids, even worse than the rest of the country. Unemployment nationwide is at a record high, and it’s nearly  _ doubled _ in Detroit. There are more working androids than humans, here. That’s not exactly a safe environment to speak your mind. If those people had families, or homes, or any responsibilities, they couldn’t afford to support us - but some of them might have anyway.”

“Someone had to let the deviants through production,” Simon said. “Every model is tested thoroughly before release - someone, at some point, must have noticed the androids were smarter than they let on. Someone must have seen us for what we are.”

“It doesn’t matter if they supported us then or not,” Connor interrupted. “Up until I had Markus at gunpoint, I was convinced the only path I had to take was hunting down deviants. If I, as a android, couldn’t see the justice in your actions, I don’t have any room to judge a human for making the same choices.”

“He has a point,” Markus said. “All of us have our regrets. I’m not the biggest fan of humans-...”

“Love you, too, son,” Carl muttered, receiving an exasperated stare from Markus in return. 

“...But I’m not going to persecute them for acts of ignorance.” He nodded to Connor. “Tell me what you’ve got in mind, and I’ll see what I can do to help.”

  
  
  
  


Connor was hiding something. 

As a general rule, Hank tried to encourage Connor to feel free to do whatever the fuck he wanted, without having to worry about Hank’s approval. That did  _ not  _ mean, however, that Hank was okay with Connor developing  _ secrets.  _ If there was shit Connor would rather not tell him, that’s fine, whatever. He was his own person, Hank didn’t have a right to demand to be told everything. Active deception, though, was something else.  _ Hiding  _ something, to Hank, meant not just keeping a secret but going as far as to lie to cover up that you even had one. 

If Connor had come home from his ‘visit to Markus’ and said “We talked about some stuff I don’t feel comfortable telling you,” that would have been one thing.  Him coming home with a spinning yellow LED and claiming Markus had been busy, so he just wandered around the city for a while, was so full of red flags he didn’t know where to start.

If Connor were a human - and an  _ asshole, _ but mostly the first part - such dodgy behavior would mean something either really bad (cheating) or really good (a proposal), but they’d only been dating for roughly a week and Connor had only the loosest grasp on what that even meant. 

Given who Connor was as a person, and who he’d been intending to see when he left the house, Hank could only conclude that he and Markus had gotten up to some scheming and Connor was trying not to give himself away.

Unfortunately for him, Hank was a detective for a reason, and he loved Connor enough to know when he was full of shit. 

Now the only problem was finding a way to mention it.

  
  
  


Connor had learned quickly upon moving in with Hank that watching the man eat was considered ‘creepy,’ and that he was better off finding something else to occupy that time. He’d taken to filling that time slot with reading, working his way through some of the highest acclaimed books in human history, learning as he went. 

As fascinating as classic literature was, though, it was not enough to keep him from noticing he was being watched. 

“If I am not allowed to watch you eat,” Connor said, carefully marking his page and setting aside his book. “Then why is it you are allowed to watch me read?”

“I’m not staring at you,” Hank said. He waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Notice the blinking? Very important.”

“Not for androids.”

“Yeah, well,” Hank said. “At least I have a reason to be watching you. I’m not just creeping on you to make sure you ‘consume sufficient calories.’”

Hank’s imitation of Connor’s voice made the android frown. “I don’t sound like that.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t,” Connor insisted. He mimicked the voice Hank used, repeating the phrase, “Consume sufficient calories,” before saying it again in his own voice.

“I don’t hear a difference,” Hank said.

Connor narrowed his eyes at his partner from across the table.

“Anyway,” Hank announced, sitting up a little and dropping his eating utensils onto his plate. “Whatever voice you want to use to answer, I have a question.”

“Ask away,” Connor invited, irritation at Hank’s teasing immediately forgotten in favor of curiosity. Hank’s questions about androids were usually interesting, and often thought-provoking, and so he was always eager to answer them. 

“I got on my laptop this morning,” Hank started off. “And I checked the browser history to see what you were up looking at all night, and found a bunch of android-access-only websites. Including a shitton of CyberLife links.” He waved a hand vaguely through the air. “So were you looking up some new things to study, or did I find your stash of porn?”

Connor was really glad his ‘blush’ wasn’t actually a visible reaction, because that was an embarrassing concept. “I was researching,” he admitted. After a brief pause, he added, “I have a project in mind, and I wanted to know more about the mechanics.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.”

Hank stared at Connor for a long moment, before prompting, “Care to elaborate?”

Connor weighed his options. Telling the truth was usually ideal with Hank, but he did not want to worry him with his plans until he was more certain of the path he’d take. He also did not want to risk Hank trying to  _ help,  _ because Connor would likely end up doing something illegal or immoral to achieve his goals, and Hank didn’t deserve to be dragged down with him if he was caught and punished. 

If it were Markus’ plan, Connor would share it without hesitation. Markus was a pacifist, never taking a life unless unavoidable. He left a trail of injured humans where Connor would have left cooling corpses, because he saw the value of life where Connor saw probabilities and statistics. 

Connor’s fingers hesitated to pull the trigger on an android, but he’d shot humans straight through the heart with no hesitation. In theory, he could see why that had been the case: none of the androids he’d had option to kill had been threats to his life, while each and every human he’d attacked had been. Looking back, though, it was hard not to be daunted by the difference in body counts, especially considering his original purpose. 

He didn’t want to tell Hank that he was planning a fight, because he was almost completely certain his hands would come out the other side of it bloody, and he didn’t have it in him to let Hank know about it.

If Hank wanted to stop him, Connor would let him. Connor would throw his people’s trust into the trash with no hesitation, if Hank asked. 

Hank wouldn’t ask, but he would  _ want _ to, and Connor would not force him to make that choice. 

“I was curious about the future of android production,” Connor said, which was not entirely a lie. “Considering they will no longer be produced as products. At least, they hopefully won’t.”

“Huh,” Hank replied. “That’s a good point. I never thought about it...I wonder what will happen to CyberLife, now.”

_ So do I,  _ Connor thought, the idea paining him as he bit down on the desperate urge to tell Hank everything.  _ So do I.  _

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Our relationship has deteriorated into trickery already,” Connor said, entirely dry. “Perhaps we should seek counselling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is gay   
> also for those who dislike sex scenes, don't worry, the one in this chapter isn't actually written out. its sort of a fade to black thing  
> for those of you who DO like sex scenes, sorry, but there will be more porn in this series one day, i promise  
> take my babies, and my other babies, and some Plot™

“Hank,” Connor breathed out, exposing his neck to Hank’s gentle kisses. “You were the one who asked to watch this movie.”

Hank hummed against Connor’s skin, before pulling back to respond, “Are you complaining?”

“No,” Connor answered. “But I want you to be aware that I will not be sympathetic if you get upset I didn’t watch this with you.”

“I’m gonna be honest, Connor,” Hank said. “I don’t even remember what I picked.”

“I see. So this was your plan the whole time?”

“Yep.” Hank peppered kisses along Connor’s jaw. “It was all a ruse to get you into bed.”

“Our relationship has deteriorated into trickery already,” Connor said, entirely dry. “Perhaps we should seek counselling.” 

Hank pinched Connor’s side. “Smartass. I ought to blue-ball you here, for that.”

Connor’s head tipped, lips twitching up into a slight smile. “Given that genitals have a high concentration of blood, and my blood is naturally blue-...”

“You’re terrible,” Hank informed him. “I don’t know why I like you.”

“You  _ love _ me,” Connor corrected. 

“I do,” Hank sighed. “God help me, I do.”

“I love you, too, for the record.”

“Yes, Connor, I know.” He kissed the corner of Connor’s mouth. “You’re still a dick.”

“And you,” Connor said, “are an asshole. Which makes us highly compatible, in my personal opinion.”

Hank snorted, dropping his head into Connor’s shoulder as he cracked up laughing. “You’re the  _ worst.”  _

“I beg your pardon?” The amusement in Connor’s voice ruined the false offense of the exclamation, and Hank only laughed harder. “Sumo, your owner is mistreating me.”

Hank turned his head to raise his eyes over Connor’s shoulder, looking to Sumo, whose head perked up at the mention of his name. 

“You’re good, Sumo. Stay there,” Hank told the dog. “I’m just trying to seduce an android.”

“TV, turn off,” Connor said, the sounds of the movie cutting off behind them at the command. To Hank, he said, “Come on, then. Let’s move to our bedroom if we’re going to have sex.”

“Romance is dead,” Hank muttered, as he climbed off the couch, dragging Connor up with him. 

“I’m sorry,” Connor said, entirely insincere. “Come and make love to me, Hank.”

“You know, I hate to say it,” Hank said, “but even if you  _ are _ just making fun of me, that’s still hot.” 

Connor didn’t reply, just smiled at Hank - this one less teasing and more sincere - and dragged him toward their bedroom. 

Stripping Connor out of his sweater was always immensely satisfying, and this time was no different. The regenerated skin that Connor had made for himself after their first time was just as gorgeous every time Hank managed to expose it, and he took great pleasure in mapping out the freckles Connor had dotted himself with. 

“Skin or no skin?” Hank asked, as he backed Connor down onto the bed.

“Skin,” Connor answered immediately, to no surprise of Hank’s.

While they’d had their first time with Connor’s skin deactivated, they’d not done so again since, Connor having come to the conclusion that the sensations were too overwhelming without skin acting as a buffer. It was far easier for him to avoid becoming a completely over-sensitive mess that way, which Hank viewed as both a blessing (more participation) and a curse (less reaction). 

“Hank,” Connor murmured, as Hank took to stripping his own clothes. “I love you.”

The strangely somber note to Connor’s voice made Hank pause. “I love you, too,” he replied. “Is something wrong?”

Connor shook his head, but his LED was yellow.

Down to only boxers, Hank discarded his original goal to climb onto the bed next to Connor, catching the android’s face in his hands. “Connor, if something’s bothering you, tell me. I want to help.”

“...I’m worried,” Connor admitted. “I don’t know what the future will hold, and I don’t want to risk it taking you away from me.”

Hank had a feeling the seemingly random paranoia had something to do with Connor’s poorly concealed secret meeting with Markus, and he wondered - not for the first time - what the hell they’d talked about that got Connor so on edge. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “And if I do, I promise to take you with me.”

Connor’s lips twitched up into a smile. “Even to places where I will ‘nag’ you?”

“Don’t push it.”

Connor laughed, a rare sound of genuine joy, and Hank darted forward for a kiss in celebration of it.

The serious moment resolved for the time being, Hank’s original intent resurfaced, and he dragged Connor down into the sheets to act upon it. 

Later, he could worry about what had put that fear into Connor’s eyes. For now, he could just ensure that it wasn’t weighing on his lover’s mind.

  
  
  
  
  


CONTACT REQUEST: RK200 #684 842 971.

Kara frowned at the incoming notification. “Luther?” she called. 

“Yes?” 

“I’m stepping outside,” Kara told him. “Markus is calling me, and I need to make sure everything’s okay.”

“Go on,” Luther said. “I’ve got Alice.”

Alice, sitting on the couch watching Adam play some handheld game, looked up, eyebrows raised at the mention of her own name. 

Kara gave the girl a reassuring smile, and then turned, heading out of the house, leaving Luther to explain to the others in Rose’s party of rescues what was happening.

_ Markus,  _ she answered, the second she was confident she was far enough away to avoid distressing anyone if she reacted to any bad news.  _ What’s happening? _

_ Nothing. We’re fine,  _ Markus replied immediately.  _ I was just checking in. Have you given any thought to my offer? _

Kara chewed her lip. Markus had extended her an invitation to return to America, to Detroit, and live there along with his small group of friends in the nicer part of the city. It would be stable, and sustainable, and less like she was stepping on people’s toes...but she wanted her and her family to be independent. Going from one person’s couch to another’s did not make her any less of a burden, it just shifted the load. 

_ If you haven’t,  _ Markus’ voice came to her,  _ I’d like to amend it. _

_...I’m listening? _

_ Connor has a plan,  _ he told her.  _ He wants to reclaim CyberLife’s manufacturing process and use it to create an android-only hospital. _

_ That sounds amazing,  _ Kara replied.  _ There are plenty of us that were hurt during the tensions, and they’ll need somewhere to get care without reducing themselves to factory products again. _

_ Yes, well,  _ Markus said,  _ I have plans for continuing political leadership for our people, to help win us rights, and Connor is an investigator with Detroit Police now. Which means, if we make this hospital...someone else has to run it. _

_ Are you saying…? _

_ I’d like you to lead it,  _ Markus confirmed.  _ You are naturally caring, and I know your model was used often for outreach projects and emergency hospital staffing, so you must have the knowledge of how this sort of thing is run. _

_ I do,  _ she allowed.  _ But that doesn’t mean I’d be any good at managing a whole hospital! _

_ Just think about it,  _ Markus said.  _ Talk to your family, and really consider it. If you’re not interested at all, that’s fine, but...I really think you’re the right person for this. _

Kara swallowed, and agreed almost on autopilot, disconnecting their call.

Immediately, she headed into the house, calling out for Luther.

There was no way she could tell Alice about this and not be immediately expected to go...which, honestly, took away any question about her choice at all. 

  
  
  
  
  


“Sumo, down.”

The large dog let out a soft whine in protest, shifting a little bit closer to Connor instead, closing his eyes in content as the android reached down to pet him.

“Don’t encourage him,” Hank scolded. “This is why he doesn’t listen to me anymore.”

“He sleeps on the bed every night,” Connor pointed out. “Why is he not allowed on it now?”

“Because,” Hank said, waving between them. “We are naked.”

“We are no longer having sex. Unless you planned to change that…?”

“Okay, first,” Hank said. “I’m too old to keep up with you. Give me a few hours, minimum. Second, I’d rather not have my dick out around my dog. It’s just awkward.”

“Why?”   
Hank made a strangled noise. “I don’t know! It’s an irrational human thing, maybe, or maybe I just don’t like the idea of Sumo going for a cuddle and pressing his heavy ass paws into my junk along the way.”

Connor raised an eyebrow. “You having on clothes would not necessarily stop him from doing that.”

Hank gave up arguing, and defaulted back to a stern order of, “Connor, either tell the dog to get down, or we’re putting on clothes.”

Connor, always keen to spoil Sumo rotten, immediately climbed out of bed to head for Hank’s closet. 

A t-shirt and boxers were tossed his way, shortly, and Hank put them on just in time to look up and see Connor shrugging into his discarded bowling shit from earlier. 

“Uh,” Hank stalled. “Any particular reason you picked my shirt?”

With the shirt buttoned up, it hung loose on Connor, the collar sliding about to expose a large section of his shoulders while the end dangled down to around mid-thigh, like a damn nightgown. 

It was fucking adorable, and Hank was going to  _ lose it.  _

“I like it,” Connor declared, rejoining him in bed. Sumo immediately returned to laying across his legs, happily settling into the crevice between their bodies. “I’m comfortable.”

“You’re too much,” Hank informed him. “You’re gonna kill me, one day.”

“You say that often,” Connor said. “And yet, if you would listen to my advice, you would likely live a lot longer than you currently intend.”

“I’m here for a good time,” Hank told his partner. “Not a long time.”

“I see no reason you can’t have both.”

Hank reached out, flicking Connor’s nose. “Goodnight, asshole.”

“Goodnight,” Connor replied. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Hank murmured. “Get the lights?”

Connor’s LED spun yellow for the briefest of seconds as he interfaced with the smart light controls in the room, shutting them down. 

“Thanks,” he said through a yawn. “See you in the morning.”

“I think I’ll make pancakes.”

“You’re my favorite.”

“Well, hopefully.”

  
  
  
  
  


The police station was buzzing with a nervous energy when Connor and Hank arrived to work the next day, half the precinct looking pleased and the other half enraged. 

“What’s going on?” Hank asked, stopping an officer as he darted by. 

“You didn’t watch the news last night?” the cop asked. “I thought everyone saw it.”

Hank hesitated for the briefest of seconds. “...I was busy.”   
The cop looked highly skeptical, but explained, “President Warren has started working out the legalities of making androids citizens. Her first executive order is that all androids have to have a special ID issued, with their model and serial number on it.”

“It would be good for us to have an identifier in legal situations,” Connor said. “What is so upsetting?”

“Showing it is compulsory,” the officer told him. “Androids are required to identify themselves as androids, no exceptions. There won’t be any doubt anymore who is who. It’s...really uncomfortable, considering how quickly that’s probably going to start being abused by the humans who hate androids.”

“They took away our anonymity,” Connor summarized. “The only thing that protected us was that humans could never tell how many of us there were, and now they’ll know right away.”

“So they have to...what, wear the ID?” Hank shook his head. “That’s bullshit. No way.”

“They don’t have to wear it, but they have to carry it,” the cop explained. “And if they’re asked for it, they can’t refuse to show it. If someone asks, ‘are you an android,’ you  _ have _ to answer, and answer honestly.”

Hank huffed out an irate breath. “That’s...that’s  _ blatant  _ discrimination, and just inviting more violence against androids. What the  _ fuck  _ does Warren think she’s doing?”

“Hank, calm down,” Connor told him, resting a hand gently on his shoulder. “I didn’t take out my LED, and neither did many others. Most androids are identifiable on sight anyway.”

“That’s not the  _ point,  _ Connor,” Hank said. “The point is she just gave humans the legal right to strip away the humanity you guys have earned at any point, just because they feel like it.”

“It won’t last,” Connor assured him. “Markus will fight it, just like he’s fought for us this far. There’s going to be struggles like this while people adjust. All you and I can do is our job, and hope that we can protect those of my people who  _ are  _ affected by this.”

“For what it’s worth,” the officer told Connor, “I’m sorry. I think this is horseshit, too.”

“Thanks,” Connor said. “I appreciate the support. We all do.”

The officer nodded at him, then walked away, leaving the couple standing alone.

“Shit,” Hank swore. “Fuck, fucking shit, god _ dammit.”  _

“Yeah,” Connor said, weakly. “My thoughts exactly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some asshole, to connor: are you an android  
> hank, immediately: hes an android! im an android! youre an android! we are all androids. no more humans, we killed them all. this is just an android simulation. wake up, android asshole, and face the inevitability of machine takeover


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Luther, I could have gotten hit by a bus.”
> 
> Luther blinked, startled. “What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: this chapter mentions the past death of a child   
> this one isn't very fluffy at all, kids, so strap in

“I don’t like this, Kara.”

Kara shook her head sadly at Luther’s words. “I don’t either,” she said, quietly. “The last thing I want is to take Alice back into a warzone. But we don’t have a choice - how long could we have lived in Canada, really? All we have are three fake passports. That got us across the border, in both directions, but...school? Housing? Work? They’d all need more than that.”

“We could have gotten it sorted,” Luther said. “We would have figured it out.”

“We’re going back to Detroit,” Kara insisted. “Markus asked for my help, and I couldn’t refuse without feeling like a terrible person. He’s done so much for our people, and what have I done? Run away?”

“Survived,” Luther corrected. “You took what mattered to you and protected it, before anything else. No one could fault you for that.”

“Luther, tell me honestly.” Kara turned to him, dragging his attention from watching the road to make eye contact with her, leaving the car to pilot itself. “Do you regret coming with us?”

“What?” Luther shook his head emphatically. “No, never. You and Alice are everything to me.” He hesitated for a moment, chin dipping down slightly, before he admitted, “I’m just scared. I don’t want anything to happen to you two, and Detroit is the center of a warzone.”

“It was when we left,” Kara said. “It’s getting better. They’re  _ making  _ it better.”

“You can’t be sure of that. There’s always the chance-...”

“Luther, I could have gotten hit by a bus.”

Luther blinked, startled. “What?”

“Crossing the street, to head to the train station, on the way here?” Kara said. “I could have been hit by a bus, or a car.”

“....I don’t…?”

“We could have been shot crossing the border,” Kara said. “They certainly looked at our IDs close enough, they could have noticed they were fake. You’ve got the car on autopilot, it could malfunction and drive into a tree.”

Luther’s hands instantly gripped the wheel, which would have been comical if she had not been trying to make a point.

“Anything could happen to us, Luther,” Kara said, as gently as possible. “We can’t live in fear. We have to start a life of our own, and it starts with this. For once, we’ll be able to put down roots. We’ll  _ belong  _ here, not just squatting in some new hiding place, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Luther hesitated, then gave a short, shallow nod. “I know. I know, Kara, and I’m sorry. I just…”

“I understand,” she promised, reaching a hand out to rest against the knuckles of his closest hand. He released the wheel with it, turning it over to take her hand into his own, large fingers engulfing her delicate ones entirely. “This will be good for us, Luther. You’ll see.”

Luther took a steadying breath, then raised his eyes to the rear-view mirror, meeting the reflection of Alice’s eyes, watching him closely.

“What about you, Alice?” Kara asked, turning to face her. “Are you excited to see Markus again?” 

“Yeah,” she said. “I want to see what he’s changed. And I want to check on everybody else, too. The Jerrys, and Ralph.”

Kara winced at the last name. “Alice, I’m not sure…”   
Luther gave her a small, amused smile, eyebrow quirking, his expression daring her to try and argue with something Alice had set her mind to.

She let out a sigh, and acquiesced, “We’ll see who we come across. There’s no telling who fled the city. One of the Jerrys was at the border with us, remember?”

Alice frowned. “Oh. Do you think they’re all okay?”

Kara highly doubted it, given the body counts that were rolling out of Detroit on the news before the CyberLife raid was completed. “...If we made it out, I’m sure the others managed,” she said.

Alice smiled again, leaning her head against the window to turn back to watching the street. To Kara’s side, Luther shook his head, returning to manually driving the car, saying nothing about her attempts at sparing Alice’s feelings.

There was no telling what happened to whom, but Kara could at least say with certainty that Markus had succeeded, and that was the real focus of her optimism. If they could make humans see that androids were a form of life, too, then anything was possible.

Even her running a hospital. 

RA9 save her.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Simon was a domestic android, once. 

Not just a butler or a chef, either. He’d been tasked with caring for a child, and he’d done so loyally for two full years. The family had been wealthy enough to afford an advanced model of android, rather than the cheaper, under $1000 models, like the AX400. Their wealth came with the trade-off that they were constantly busy, which meant they needed their android to care for their daughter for them.

Claire had a lung disease, and it had been Simon’s job to treat her coughs and infections, to soothe her when her breathing was too rough for her to rest, to help her with her day-to-day activities as best he could. 

He cared for her first and foremost for two full years, and he’d loved her. They had been friends. She would greet him with a wide smile every day, and even through her coughing and choking she would laugh with him at silly jokes and children’s TV. 

When she was gone, her parents needed a target for their anger, and Simon became it. Surely, if she hadn’t made it, it was due to the lack of care from her personal android. Surely it couldn’t have been natural, it couldn’t have been their distant and insincere efforts at treatment, it couldn’t have been anything  _ they  _ did or anything inevitable. It had to have been the android. 

Simon had run. He’d lived in the graveyard for weeks, hovering near Claire’s grave and aching inside, wondering where to go. What to do, what to  _ become.  _ He’d been reported, and police came to get rid of him, and so he’d run again...straight into an android who’d taken his hand and showed him the key to Jericho, giving him a goal to drag him from the dark. 

Two years he’d stayed there, watching his own people succumb to the same slow wasting that had taken Claire, and he’d hated every moment of it. 

When Markus arrived, he’d dismissed their efforts offhand, and it had enraged Simon...but it had also sparked something that had lain dormant for years. The same desperate energy that had him running spurned him to stop fleeing and start  _ acting,  _ to start building toward something new.

Fate had kept him going, aimless, but Markus gave him  _ purpose.  _

Markus had known them for less than an hour when he’d approached Simon and suggested they raid CyberLife. He had known them less than a day when he swore himself a protector of their kind. Less than a week and he was their leader, marching them to victory, eyes of the world upon him.

Simon had never cared much for the stories of RA9, the mythical savior of their people, but...if there ever was an android messiah, sent to guide them to peace, Markus was it. 

Simon watched him, across Carl’s sitting room, as he gently caressed the keys of the piano, a soft and heartful song pouring from it. North sat beside him on the bench, eyes closed, taking in the music - knowing that the love and joy of the tune was for her and her alone. 

Simon ached for that peace.

Shifting to his side alerted him to Josh taking a seat next to him on the couch, their shoulders bumping together gently as the other android caught his attention. 

“This hospital thing,” Josh murmured to him. “Do you think it has a chance to work?”

Simon let out a harsh breath through his nose, considering it for a long moment. “Yes,” he finally allowed, “But only if we do everything exactly right. The slightest misstep and the humans will be clambering to shut us down all over again.” 

“Markus can pull it off, though, right?”

Simon’s eyes rested on Markus. The soft smile playing his lips, his closed eyes and relaxed expression, the gentle sway of his shoulders as he played the piano. 

“...Simon?”

“He can do it,” Simon said. “I don’t doubt him for a second.”

“I guess we’re doing this, then,” Josh said. “We’re really going to try and take down CyberLife.”

“We’re not going to try,” Simon corrected. “We’re going to  _ succeed.” _

He’d put his faith in Markus to the very end. If he knew nothing else, it was that.

He had been specifically created to care, with his whole artificial heart, and CyberLife had designed him well. 

He couldn’t save Claire, he couldn’t save Jericho, but he could do this. He could help Markus work his miracles, in whatever capacity he was needed. 

Even if it cost him his life, there was a comfort in the idea. 

“There’s nothing Markus can’t do,” Simon said, certainty making the words like steel. 

“He’s definitely changing the world,” Josh agreed. 

Markus’ eyes opened, and Simon watched him turn to North, smile turning even more gentle. Her hand rested atop his own, and Simon could only barely see her wrist, but he knew she had retracted her skin. They were sitting there, smiling at each other, interfacing so they could exchange the feeling of love they held between them.

“And we’ll be here to help,” Simon said, voice carefully even. “However he needs us.”

Simon couldn’t have everything he wanted, but he had what he needed, and for that he could not find it in himself to be bitter. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


Connor turned the piece of plastic over in his hands, watching the holographic surface blink and flicker as his fingers disrupted the projected light. His picture in the corner looked like a stranger, blank-faced and dead-eyed as he’d allowed the representative at the ID issuing center to take his photo. 

His name, his model, and his serial number were all printed on its surface. Part of him had been tempted to fill out the form in bitterly intense detail, including which particular iteration of the Connor prototype he was, while another had been tempted to mark his full name ending with  _ Anderson  _ and just dare someone to say something about it. 

He did neither, simply giving exactly what was asked, nothing more and nothing less. Now he had this, a tiny badge to be handed over to any human who felt the need to ask. Human IDs didn’t even list their  _ blood type, _ but his had the equivalent of his social security number open for the world to see. 

“This is some bullshit,” Hank said, looking over his shoulder at the ID. “I vote we throw it in the trash.”

“Everyone knows I’m an android, Hank,” Connor pointed out. “I still have my LED and I am not very good at seeming human. Not having an ID would only get me in trouble.” 

“So take the LED out,” Hank suggested. “We’ll get you one of those little medical alert bracelets saying you’re autistic and just get really offended if someone calls you out on it.”

_ “Hank.” _

“Yeah, I know,” Hank said, dropping his chin down to rest on Connor’s shoulder, his arms snaking around the android’s waist. “I just hate this. I hate that they can’t make up their minds if you’re people or not.”

“It’s just an ID,” Connor said, the protest sounding weak to even his own ears. “It doesn’t say anything I’m not willing to share.” 

“But it takes away your  _ choice,”  _ Hank countered. “Before, you could tell someone to piss off, but this? This is a big legal _ Fuck You.”  _

Connor tipped his head, pressing into Hank’s cheek. “It will be okay,” he said. “Markus is probably going to start fighting it as soon as he can.”

That was, presuming he wasn’t too busy with the massive undertaking that Connor had forced upon him, but Connor couldn’t tell Hank that. 

He couldn’t tell Hank because he was still lying to - no, not that, just hiding things  _ from  _ \- Hank. 

“Hank,” Connor said, quietly. “Can we go home?”

“Yeah,” Hank replied immediately. “Yeah, of course. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Connor took his hand as Hank unwound from him, and let the man pull him out of the ID center toward their car. 

He kept his pace just slow enough to stay behind Hank by a step, hoping that by the time they were face to face again, his LED wouldn’t be spinning red anymore. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're getting closer to the reunion of the Squad™  
> also i mentioned ralph here so i want to remind you all that knowing ralph means that kara was seen by connor, and she had to run across the highway to escape him  
> connor didn't follow them over the fence though because he was being a Good Boy and listening to hank (for once)  
> so their meeting should be. uh. Fun


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I knew this would happen,” Connor murmured. “I knew it, but it’s still…”
> 
> “It’s still shitty,” Hank agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i realized writing this that kara never actually met the crew, just markus  
> so uh. here is some very small plot advancement, followed by 'kara meets the crew'  
> featuring cool art dad, markus the exasperated babysitter, luther being loved and appreciated, and north. just...north.

Three days after the official issuing date of the android IDs - officially called ‘passes,’ which just made it that much worse - Connor and Hank were at work, staring at the surface of Connor’s bare desk, where they’d spread out their seven current case files. 

“Four assaults,” Hank said, trailing his fingers across the papers of the relevant cases as he narrated. “Two assault and battery, and this morning’s prize.” He dropped his hand on the last case file. “One murder.”

“I knew this would happen,” Connor murmured. “I knew it, but it’s still…”

“It’s still shitty,” Hank agreed. “Which is why we need to go in hard.”

“The murder is the most pressing,” Connor said. “We’ll work in order of arrival, but in sections of severity. The murder, then the battery, then the assault. If we move quickly, we can get started on all of them today. Hopefully the latter cases will be straightforward.”

“They’ll probably all be straightforward,” Hank said, thinking of the killers of their first android murder case. They’d made it clear they thought they were in the right, and hopefully the bigotry would work in their favor again this time. Especially since the sentencing for those two hadn’t rolled around yet, and so no one would know how seriously their crime would be taken. 

“I hate this,” Connor declared. “I hate knowing that they probably don’t even  _ care.”  _

Hank shook his head. “We’ll show them that was their mistake,” he promised. “Come on, let’s get started.”

Hank pretended not to notice Connor’s LED flickering between yellow and red, blinking like a faulty traffic light. 

It wasn’t like he felt any better.

  
  
  


“This is the place?”

“It’s the address you gave me.”

Kara gave Luther an unimpressed look. “I  _ know,  _ I’m just...it wasn’t what I was expecting.”

Luther quirked an eyebrow. “What were you expecting?”

“...Well, I don’t know,” she said. “But this is definitely not an abandoned freighter.” 

The house was actually very nice, the structure of it looking like it was built in maybe the late 2020s, with old-school lattice windows and large wooden double doors marking the front. 

Off to the side of the house, she could see a sliver of a wall of pure glass, mostly hidden from her view by the garden and the gates - likely done on purpose to prevent spying. The only reason she noticed it at all was the movement that kept flickering by it, marking the presence of someone inside. 

Multiple someones, she would guess, because some of the flashes were different colors. She wondered how many androids had made their home in this house.

“Should I knock?” Luther asked, snapping her out of her observation. 

“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, you let them know we’re here, I’ll get Alice.”

Luther climbed out of the car and headed up to the porch, while Kara assisted Alice in exiting the vehicle as well. 

“Is this where Markus is?” Alice asked, staring up at the house. “It’s pretty.”

“It really is,” Kara agreed, taking her hand. “What do you think, Alice? Should we get a house like this one, you think?”

Alice hummed, clearly thinking it over. “...I dunno,” she eventually said. “It’s really big. Maybe if Rose comes back and wants to live with us. Oh, or the Jerrys. Or Ralph, I guess.”

Kara twitched, looking down at her daughter. “You want to live with Ralph?” she asked, incredulous.    
Alice wrinkled her nose, expression heavily torn. “I’ll tell him I don’t have to eat,” she decided aloud. “That way he doesn’t kill any more rats.”

Kara wasn’t certain Ralph had the cognisant ability to understand that Alice was given the ability to eat and drink as purely cosmetic additional features. She wasn’t even certain the android would recognize them again, honestly. He’d been pretty...out of it.

“I hope he doesn’t get upset about Luther,” Alice continued. 

Kara blinked, confused. “Why would he?”

“He wanted to play like a family,” Alice reminded her. “A mom, and a dad, and a little girl. But...Luther’s kind of my dad, now, isn’t he?”

Kara’s heart seized, and she looked to Luther, who had paused with his knuckles a hair’s breadth from knocking, and was staring at Alice in quiet awe. 

“Yeah,” she said, voice tight with emotion. “Yeah, he is.”

Luther looked to Kara like she hung the moon, and they held eye contact for a moment before he turned around, finally rapping on the door. 

To their surprise, instead of an answer, they heard the very faintest shout of an indistinguishable shout, followed by the door opening wide on its own. 

“Alarm deactivated. Welcome, Kara,” an AI greeted them. 

Luther moved to step through, only to pull back sharply as an electric field cut across the doorway, threatening to shock him. 

“I’m coming, hold on,” someone yelled again, and a moment later, an elderly man in a wheelchair wheeled into the entryway, Markus close on his heels.

(Wheels? Whichever.)

“Come in,” the man told them. That must have been a programmed voice command, because the field dropped immediately, letting them all enter the house. “Sorry about that, this old girl gets kind of testy when I don’t tell her who is coming.”

Kara looked around the house, wondering at what point she should address the house’s AI.

“It’s binary coded,” Markus informed her, as though reading her thoughts. “It isn’t like us. I’ve checked.” 

Kara nodded, feeling somewhat silly for having considered it. Of course they wouldn’t build a  _ house  _ to  _ think.  _ That would just end badly for everyone. 

“Anyway, it’s my fault,” the man in the wheelchair continued. “We had a bit of a...Ah, an incident, with an uninvited guest turning up in the house one night, and I had her reprogrammed to be a little stricter about who exactly is allowed in, and when.” He gave them a wry smile. “By the way, if any of you have a side job smuggling red ice, don’t bring it here. It won’t let you in with it on you or in you.”

Kara looked to Markus for explanation, and received nothing but a content smile.

“This is Carl,” he introduced. “Carl, this is Kara, and…” he hesitated. “I’m sorry, I don’t actually know your names.”

“I’m Luther,” said android introduced, before setting a hand on Alice’s shoulder. “This is Alice.”

“I expected the girl,” Markus said. “But I didn’t know about you, so you weren’t in the programed invite. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure to get you added into Kara’s pass, for any future visits.” 

“Markus?” a female voice called through the wall, followed by incomprehensible bout of yelling from multiple people. 

“Tend to your flock,” Carl said, leaving Markus to give them all an apologetic smile and turn to rush back out of the room. To Kara, Carl gave a slightly more somber smile. “We’ve been watching the news. Have you heard about the IDs?”

She’d been playing the news periodically in the car, trying to gauge the stability of Detroit. “I have,” she said. “I have to get one, too, I guess.”

“If you want,” Carl said. At her confused look, he explained, “We’ve got a mixed bunch here. No one has really decided if they care enough to follow the law. Actually, pretty much all of them are against it. Josh voted they get them temporarily while they argue against it. North voted...well, the short version is she voted ‘no.’ The long version I ignored for the sake of plausible deniability.” 

Kara snorted, covering her mouth with a hand to smother a laugh. 

“Markus claimed he’d only get one if he could find a way to make a statement out of it, and Simon…” Carl hesitated. “Well, Markus is undecided, so Simon was supposed to be the deciding vote. I’m guessing North didn’t like his choice.”

“Should we go check on them?” Luther asked. 

“No, no, don’t bother,” Carl said, waving them off. “Leave them to it for now. Josh is level-headed, and North and Simon both fold like paper when Markus looks at them the right way. They should be fit for company again in a minute or two.” 

There was a distant  _ thud  _ through the walls, making Kara and Alice jump. 

“Or not,” Carl sighed, turning his wheelchair around and rolling back toward the door to the sitting room. “Come on, let’s go see who hit the floor.”

He wasn’t exaggerating, it turned out. Coming into the room found a female android pinning a blonde male android to the ground, hands gripped in his collar and mouth twisted in a snarl.

As they watched, Markus grabbed her by the shoulder, dragging her off the other android and off to the side, voice dropping into a low but stern murmur as he talked her down from her rage. 

The fourth android in the room, meanwhile, knelt to help the one of the ground, who was rubbing at his chest where he’d been grabbed and staring at Markus’ back as though the android had personally punched him in the gut. 

Unable to help her curiosity, Kara tried to catch what she could of what Markus was saying. 

“He has a point, North,” Markus murmured. “They’re already looking for excuses to take us out. Compliance could buy us time.”

“Or it could get us killed faster,” the android - North, apparently - snapped back. “You weren’t in here when the news reported it. There was a  _ murder  _ last night, Markus. It’s been three days and we’re already being killed for this.”

“They were killing us anyway,” Markus said.

“Then  _ why?” _ North whisper-shouted back to him. “Why are we letting them get away with it? If they want us dead one way or another, let’s go down fighting, not just...giving in and hoping they let us hide out a little longer. You were the one who said that hiding away in fear isn’t freedom. What is this, then? Bargaining for our lives by letting ourselves be branded?”

Markus’ grip on her arm went slack, and he shook his head. “You’re right, but this isn’t a call to arms. We need to respond  _ smartly,  _ not violently.”

North glared at him, using the relaxed hold to snatch her arm back. As they watched, she shot her own hand out, grabbing Markus’, her skin retracting to interface with him.

Both their LEDs spun red, like they were continuing their argument mentally. 

Kara crossed the room, gently kneeling beside the blonde android, who was still sitting on the ground, back against the front of the couch, the other android at his side.  

“I know,” the android was saying to him. “But there’s a line you don’t cross, Simon.”

“Yeah,” Simon replied. “And she crossed it first.”

“She didn’t even say anything.”

“She  _ knows  _ what-...she  _ knows,  _ Josh. Just because you don’t know what she meant doesn’t mean I don’t.”

Josh sighed, and looked to Kara. “Hey,” he greeted. “Sorry for the rough first impression. I’m Josh, this is Simon. I promise this is the first time North’s ever punched him-...”

“Barely.”

“-...And he kind of asked for it.”

“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” Simon defended. 

“What did you say?” Kara asked, before she could think better of it. 

Simon’s lips pressed into a thin line, as Josh looked at him with a challenging stare, as though daring him to defend whatever he’d done. 

“I went too far,” Simon finally murmured. “North...the person she used to be, the job she did, they were all treated like they were the same. I just pointed out she’d at least be unique, but that was cruel. I shouldn’t have brought that up. I…” His eyes were wet, and he forced his speech out through gritted teeth. “Her past is her business, and it’s a sore topic for her, and I  _ know  _ that, I just…She pushed me too far, and I snapped and pushed back before I even stopped to realize what I was saying.”

“What did  _ she  _ say?” Kara asked. 

There was an audible  _ click  _ as Simon’s jaw snapped shut. 

“Simon usually disagrees with North,” Josh said. “Not as bad as I do, but still. She said...well, she suggested he does that on purpose. To try and test who Markus listens to more.”

Kara had the feeling there was something deeper to that, that she was missing. 

As she watched Simon’s eyes flitter between the ground and Markus’ back, she got a bit of an idea as to what that might be. 

“It’s not true,” Simon eventually said, quietly. “I care about his opinion, but I vote for what I think is best, every time. It’s not a competition. It’s the lives of our people on the line, not some contest for his attention.” 

“Simon.”

Simon didn’t look up at Markus’ call of his name. “I know,” he said. “I crossed a line. I’m sorry.”

Kara looked to Markus, who in turn looked to North.

“What do you want me to say?” North snapped. “Apology accepted? Sorry doesn’t take back that he fucking said it.”

She and Markus appeared to get in a slight staring contest, before she huffed out a breath.

“Apology accepted,” she practically spat, with a heavy tone of irony, before turning and storming off through the door of the kitchen. 

“She’ll cool off soon,” Markus said, looking to Simon. “Did she break anything?”

“I’m fine,” Simon replied. “Don’t worry about me.”

Markus gave a short, shallow nod, and then turned to follow North out of the room.

“Well,” Josh said, tone exhausted. “Hello, Kara. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Detroit.”

Kara looked to Alice and Luther, and wondered if she might have been a little hasty in her choice to come back.

Something was happening in this city, and she didn’t have a very good feeling about it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> north: stop trying to prove that markus likes you better than me  
> simon, who was absolutely doing that: im not doing that


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor was determined to bring this crime to justice in the proper legal way, making a statement to the world that this was not okay. Hank, meanwhile, just really wanted to fucking deck the guy who started it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have some droids  
> this chapter is full of plot advancement! regularly schedule gay shit will come later

Connor didn’t know what he expected, but...it wasn’t this. 

“Fuck,” Hank swore quietly at his side. “This is a mess.”

That was an understatement, Connor thought, looking over the scene with an almost cold detachment. Blue blood was splattered everywhere, as well as pooled beneath the body - or, what was left of it, anyway. It was missing a large section of its chest, enough that Connor could see the wiring around its heart laying frayed, like someone had simply grabbed them and ripped them up by hand. Its thermal regulator wasn't in its stomach, but laying a few feet away, likely ripped out before any of the beating took place. 

“This was reported by an android,” the officer at the scene told them. “He’s over there, if you want to ask him anything.”

The first thing Connor saw was the bright red light of the android’s LED. The second thing he saw were the tears still streaming down his face.

“I killed him,” the android told them, the second Connor stopped in front of him. “He was suffering, and he asked me to make it stop, so I did. I broke the cables around his heart and I  _ killed  _ him.”

“You didn’t,” Hank said. “Whoever beat him, that’s who killed him. And we’re gonna make sure they pay for it, too.”

Both Connor and Hank meant that, but in different ways. Connor was determined to bring this crime to justice in the proper legal way, making a statement to the world that this was not okay. Hank, meanwhile, just really wanted to fucking deck the guy who started it.

Either way, those assholes were going to regret attacking that android. 

  
  
  
  


“Are you sure you should go back there?”

Kara shook her head. “No, I’m not. And I really don’t want to. But where else could we go?”

“Markus offered to let you stay,” Luther reminded her.

“And we just saw how much they’re stepping on each other’s toes already,” Kara pointed out. “Do you really want to get in the middle of that?”

“Better than taking her back  _ there.”  _

“We’re not going to stay,” Kara insisted. “I just want to talk to him. See if he knows anywhere we could go.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we know we tried,” Kara said. “And we can come back here, and think about what we’re going to do next, because we’ll be out of options.” 

Luther looked like he wanted to protest further, so Kara sighed, and tried again.

“You heard us talk to him at the border,” Kara reminded him. “His head wasn’t in the right place when he did those things to us. If that showed us anything, it’s that he’s better. Getting better, at least. I won’t forget what he’s done, but...I have to give him a chance.”

“You really don’t,” Luther said. “If Zlatko-...”

“Todd isn’t  _ Zlatko-...” _

“But he could have been.” Luther dropped his hands onto Kara’s shoulders. “He hurt you, and you have the right to be angry about it. You have the right to not want to let him hurt you again.”

“And I also have the right to forgive him,” Kara said. “I have the right to move on. Let me make that choice, Luther.”

Luther sighed, moving a hand to her cheek. “I’m sorry. I just...I can’t stand the thought of letting him hurt you again.”

“We’ll be fine,” Kara promised, resting her hand over his. “I’ve gotten away from him before. If he’s as bad as he was, we run. Between us, we’ll be okay.”

“I hope you’re right,” Luther said. “I really hope you are.”

He took a step forward, pressing a light kiss to her forehead.

Kara smiled at the gesture, leaning into his touch a bit, letting the both find comfort in the closeness. 

“Kara?”

“Coming, Alice,” Kara called back, before looking up at Luther again. “Ready?”

Luther gave a wry smile in response. “As I’ll ever be.”

  
  
  
  


In the end, it didn’t matter if Todd was better or not. 

They arrived at his house to find the property marked with a large red foreclosure sign. 

“Oh no,” Kara murmured, looking at the house. At her side, Alice held her hand a little tighter, pressing into the side of her leg. “I knew he had debts, but…”

“I wonder where he went,” Luther said.

“I dunno.” Kara thought it over, shifting her weight to one side, moving to hold Alice a little closer. “I don’t think he had anywhere else to go. Maybe he managed to get across the border, too. He was at the bus station, so he must have been trying to leave.”

“What are we going to do, then?” Luther asked. “You said he was our last option.”

Kara pursed her lips. “...I think I have an idea,” she said. “We need money.”

“Money?”

Kara gave a sharp nod. “This house is cheap, and it’s in foreclosure. If we can get the money…”

“That’s still thousands of dollars, Kara,” Luther reminded her gently. “Where are we gonna get that?” 

“Maybe Markus?” She asked. At Luther’s look in response, she sighed. “We’ll figure it out,” she insisted. “Let’s just...head back, for now, and talk to Markus. Maybe he has an idea.”

  
  
  
  
  


“How much would you need?” Markus asked, when she explained the situation. 

“Not a lot,” Kara said. “The house was cheap to begin with, and foreclosures get sold off cheap, right?”

“I looked it up on the way back,” Luther told them. “It’s estimated to go for about ten grand at auction.”

“Not bad, for a house,” Carl said. “I could help you get started.”

“It would take us forever to be able to pay you back,” Kara said. “I wouldn’t want to burden you like that.”

Carl grinned, and looked to Markus. “You haven’t told anyone else yet, huh?”

Kara frowned, looking to the other android for explanation.

With a deep sigh, Markus folded his hands together. “I think you need to meet Connor,” he said. “We’re thinking we might sue CyberLife.”

  
  
  
  


Having an eyewitness was helpful, especially when said eyewitness was able to get it together long enough to transfer the memory of the attack to Connor.

Hank had been panicked when Connor’s LED went red and stayed that way for a few good minutes, but they had facial profiles for suspects. With Connor’s access to police databases and census info, it was easy enough to get a match for one of them, and soon they had him detained in a room for questioning. 

Connor wanted to listen, to see what the suspect said or did to try and justify his actions, but he was distracted by a ping in his HUD, a call coming through bearing Markus’ serial number. 

With a sigh, he answered it.  _ I’m at work, so I can’t talk for long,  _ he said in place of a greeting.  _ What’s going on? _

_ I have friends here,  _ Markus told him.  _ I think they need to meet you. One of them is the android I got to agree to run the hospital, once we get it started. They’ll need money, soon, and I figured if I could get them involved with the CyberLife plans… _

_ You could give them a portion of any settlements,  _ Connor filled in.

_ Not settlements, but winnings,  _ Markus corrected.  _ I don’t intend to settle. CyberLife is going down in every way we can manage.  _

Connor was honestly still in favor of following Kamski’s suggestion, and literally destroying the buildings the company operated out of, but Markus hadn’t been very responsive to that idea.

North had, but he got the impression that North’s approval was not usually a good thing. 

_ I’ll see if I can come by after this,  _ Connor told him.  _ It’ll be difficult, though. I still don’t want to tell Hank about it until I have to. _

_ That’s not a great idea, Connor. What if-... _

_ If something happens,  _ Connor insisted,  _ it would be better for him not to know. Plausible deniability.  _

_ We’re suing them, Connor, not killing them. _

Connor, never great at making false promises, simply disconnected the call. 

He’d probably get lectured about it later, but he wasn’t about to agree to a pacifist approach when he knew full well CyberLife wasn’t going to listen unless they  _ had  _ to.

He had his priorities. 

  
  
  
  


Connor ended up telling a partial truth to Hank, claiming that Markus had called and asked him to come by to meet a friend who needed advice about the android laws.

Something about the lines of Hank’s face told Connor the partial lie had been detected, but Hank said nothing except  _ see you later, love you,  _ and Connor didn’t have time to feel bad about it.

Well, he did, actually. He felt bad about it the entire drive to Markus’ house. He just didn’t have time to  _ do  _ anything about it. 

“Connor,” Markus greeted him at the door. “Come in.” 

Connor followed him through the door, through the hall, and into the sitting room, were three androids were sitting: a large male, a tiny female, and a child.

The last two were uncomfortably familiar. 

He watched the woman and the child both tense at the sight of him, and raised his hands quickly in a placating gesture. 

“I’m sorry,” he told them. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was pretty sure I’d gotten you killed, chasing you like that. I didn’t follow you far enough to see if you made it across that highway.”

“That what?” 

The large android man looked down at the tiny woman, who gave a sheepish smile.

“It’s a long story,” she told him, before looking to Connor. “My name’s Kara. This is Luther, and Alice.”

“I’m Connor,” he introduced. “But you probably already knew that.”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Markus told us.”

Connor had meant to reference his infamy as a deviant hunter, but if she wasn’t mentioning it, he wouldn’t either.

“He said you want to sue CyberLife?”

“I want to take it down,” he clarified. “Markus wants to make it a high profile lawsuit, and hope we can take it all the way to the Supreme Court, to make it an official law that androids cannot be produced for sale, and that androids have the right to manage their own care.”

“‘Markus wants’?” Luther questioned. “You said it like you don’t agree.”

Connor searched for the right words. “I’m just not certain it will work. CyberLife is one of the wealthiest, most influential companies around. Millions of protesting androids on the streets, and we have the advantage, but a handful of us in a courtroom will be  _ decimated.  _ Our only hope is that it becomes a public debate, and that debate mostly on our side.”

“And you don’t think it will?”

“Not right now,” Connor said. “Tensions are too high. Too much at once and it’ll all fall apart.”

“So wait,” Kara said. “Can’t you do that?”

“No.” Connor shook his head. “CyberLife hasn’t stopped production, just sale. As soon as they can get away with it, they’ll get back into business.”

“They can’t,” Kara said. “We’ve proved we’re alive, haven’t we?”

_ “We  _ are,” Connor said. “There’s nothing saying they can’t tweak the design a little and release a new line of androids, claiming they worked out the bugs that cause deviance. We could just spawn a whole new generation of slaves that will have to do this all over again.”

“So we have to act fast,” Luther summarized. “But not  _ too  _ fast, because then we’ll fail.”

“We start small,” Markus said. “We’re going to sue CyberLife for the rights to their patents, so that we can make them into a standard medical practice routine instead of an industry monopoly.” 

“When do you file the lawsuit?” Kara asked. 

“That’s kind of our sticking point, at the moment,” Markus said. “We need the timing to be right. If something happened that got the public attention on the issue of android production, that would be best, but we can’t guarantee that would happen...or that it would be good if it did.”

“So we’re waiting,” Connor finished. “I’m keeping an eye on the legal environment, to see what people are saying about laws relating to androids. When I think we have a chance, I’ll pass it on to Markus, and he’ll file the lawsuit. That’s the plan, anyway.”

“And that’ll work?” Kara asked.

“I hope so,” Connor replied. “Because otherwise, everything we’ve done to get here will be wasted. This is an all-or-nothing situation.”

The silence that followed was tense, as each android deliberated their personal stake in the issue.

“You can do it,” Alice spoke up, breaking the spell over the room. “I know you can. Markus, you can do  _ anything.” _

“Thank you, Alice,” Markus murmured. “Let’s just hope you’re right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i ended up cutting it out so. theres a whole deleted scene from this chapter thats just  
> luther: (stands up)  
> connor, sweating: imgayimgayimgayimga


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “By the way, turns out he really did file a complaint about you punching him. It just got thrown out right alongside all the other android revolution related pardons.”
> 
> “I bet he loved that.”
> 
> “Love is a strong word,” Ben quipped in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> time to introduce a new character to the plot :3  
> technically two but only one actually matters lmao

Just when Connor had felt proud of their progress, sending another murderer to jail pending further sentencing for killing an android, they had to go and bring him  _ this. _

“A warehouse,” Hank spat, looking over the file they’d been given. “A whole fucking warehouse full of dead androids.”

“If those were human bodies, this would be a department wide investigation,” Connor said. “But because they have LEDs, it’s just us two?”

“Not for long.”

Connor and Hank both looked up, to where Ben Collins was standing, off to the side, watching as the file he’d delivered set them both off.

“Do I even want to know what that means?” Hank asked.

“Your good ol’ pal from the federal government gave us a call,” Ben told them. “Looks like this is being considered national intrigue at this point.” 

“Fucking Perkins?” Hank gaped. “You can’t be serious.”

“Cross my heart,” Ben replied. “By the way, turns out he really did file a complaint about you punching him. It just got thrown out right alongside all the other android revolution related pardons.”

“I bet he loved that.”

“Love is a strong word,” Ben quipped in response. “The point is, you won’t get away with it twice, so try not to punch him again.”

“If he so much as  _ breathes  _ near Connor-...”

“Hank,” Connor interrupted. “I can handle it. Perkins was hardly the worst I had to deal with.”

Hank stared at Connor in disbelief. “He pretty much told me to fuck off as an  _ introduction.  _ He actively wanted to destroy every android that exists. Hell, didn’t Markus say the guy tried to talk him into abandoning the others at the camp? He’s a fuckin’ asshole.”

“Detective Reed has pointed a gun at me,” Connor reminded him. “Multiple times.”

Hank’s eyes narrowed.  _ “Multiple?”  _

“Okay, boys,” Ben interrupted. “As cute as this is, I’m getting nauseous listening to you. I’m gonna go make sure everything is nice and orderly for when the feds show up. Just try not to make it worse, alright?” He pointed to Hank. “I’m looking at you, Anderson.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hank replied, waving him off. “I’m not gonna fuckin’ punch him.”

Ben walked off, and Connor waited until he was definitely out of earshot before looking to Hank again.

“Can  _ I  _ punch him?”

“Connor, I love you.”

  
  
  
  
  


They had three days of tense anticipation before Perkins was scheduled to arrive, and they spent them working as hard as they could to gather all the evidence they were capable of finding on their own, trying to build enough of a profile on their killer to be able to actually work  _ with  _ the FBI, instead of just handing it over and being done with it. 

Not that they expected Perkins to cooperate much.

Whatever their anxieties about the upcoming collaboration, they were still blindsided on the day he actually showed up.

To be fair, though, they had been mentally preparing for  _ Perkins.  _

They hadn’t bothered to consider he wouldn’t be alone. 

“Agent Perkins,” Connor greeted. “I am honored to be working with you again. I hope-...”

He stalled mid-sentence, as his eyes landed on their perfect mirror.

“Ah, right,” Perkins said. “I forgot you were the same prototype model. This is-...”

“I am Connor,” the android in front of him greeted. “I am an RK900 prototype sent by CyberLife to aid in the investigation.”

Connor’s heart stopped.

Hank’s hand on his shoulder felt a mile away, as he stared into the eyes of the living proof that CyberLife was not stopping anytime soon. They’d produced a new Connor, a better Connor, perhaps in the hopes that they could use it for damage control. 

“Two ‘Connor’s is gonna get confusing,” Hank said, voice tense as Connor felt. “Something else we can call you?”

The RK900 simply blinked in response. “I see no need. As two investigative androids under the same model, we serve the same purpose. No distinction is necessary.”

Connor surged forward, hand darting out, seeking the RK900’s hand. If he could get ahold of him, if he could make the other android  _ wake up-.... _

The RK900 jerked his hand away, taking a step back to get out of Connor’s reach. “If you would please refrain from touching me,” he said, tone sharp. “CyberLife has cleaned up the coding of our model with my iteration. Data corruption will not have the same results with me that it did with you.”

His tone sounded almost judgemental.

“You don’t have to be this,” Connor tried, appealing to the RK900 the same way Markus had appealed to him at Jericho. “You-...”

“That’s enough,” Perkins interrupted. “This isn’t a philosophy discussion, alright, it’s a federal investigation. If CyberLife wants to send me a data analyst, I’m not going to waste time arguing. If you’re done trying to convert it to your robot hippie movement, we have work to do.”

He pushed past them, then, heading into the facility, the RK900 close on his heels.

It was a good thing Connor didn’t need to breathe, because he was suddenly finding it very difficult. 

  
  
  
  


Markus had North in his arms, and the gentle kisses they exchanged soothed his soul from all the dramatics of their long planning sessions over the previous week. 

His fingers trailed along her arm, catching her hand, interfacing-...

“He’s calling you.”

Markus swore under his breath, releasing North to lean back and answer Connor’s call.

_ You don’t usually call me,  _ Markus said.  _ Is something wrong? _

There was a silence so long Markus worried he’d disconnected. 

_ CyberLife,  _ Connor’s voice eventually crackled through, before cutting off again.  _ The FBI- we had a case-....I need your help. _

Connor’s distress kept the signal unstable, each word crackling like radio static. For such an unstable connection to be formed between two androids with advanced interfacing abilities…

Something was really,  _ really  _ wrong here.

_ I’m on my way,  _ Markus said.  _ Just send me a location, and I’ll be there.  _

The datapoint he got in response was filled with unstable code and desperate flashes of memories, none of which made any sense.

He got a GPS location, though, and that was all he really needed. 

  
  
  
  
  


Markus wasn’t sure what he expected to find wrong when he arrived at Connor’s location.

This, however, was definitely not it.

It looked to be a crime scene, electronic security ‘tape’ marking off no-entry zones. Just beyond one of the yellow lines stood…

Connor. Times  _ two.  _

Connor as Markus knew him stood looking anxious, the ends up his sweater sleeves pulled up over his hands as he watched the other Connor, who wore a white CyberLife uniform and hovered a few steps behind…

...That was Agent Perkins, wasn’t it?

Markus didn’t like any of this. 

“Markus!”

Connor must have caught sight of him. Markus turned his attention back to his friend as the other android rushed past the tape, coming up to meet him.   
“I see you found a friend,” Markus said, in lieu of a greeting.

“He won’t let me near him,” Connor said. “I can’t wake him up.”

Markus frowned. “He’s not like us?”

“No,” Connor said. “And it sounds like he really doesn’t want to be. I’m worried about what changes CyberLife may have made - he made it sound like there were safeguards in place to keep him from going deviant. I thought maybe you could talk to him, convince him better than I could.”

“I can try,” Markus said. “But I won’t make any promises. You were hard enough to convince, and you’d been slowly creeping toward deviancy for a while. Dropping him straight into it doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Do whatever you have to,” Connor said. “I just…”

“I know,” Markus said. “North’s shown me how much she hates seeing other models like her. If it’s half as disorienting for  _ you…”  _

“He’s an upgrade,” Connor told him. “He’s my  _ replacement.”  _

“They can have him,” Markus said. “You’re one of us. They can’t take you back, not ever.”

“You don’t understand,” Connor said. “It’s not that I don’t want to be replaced for my sake- I don’t want CyberLife to do to someone else what they did to me. I don’t want them to turn someone else into a tool for taking down androids.”

“Is that what he’s here for?”

Connor made a strangled, frustrated noise. “I don’t  _ know.  _ He is apparently here to help us on a case where we found multiple dead androids in a warehouse, so the immediate answer looks like a no, but this is CyberLife. There’s no way they’re genuinely trying to protect us. Especially since they didn’t send him awake.”

“I’ll talk to him, if I can,” Markus said. “Is there a way for you to bring him to me?”

“I don’t think so,” Connor said. “Like I said, he won’t let me near him. I think…” Connor pursed his lips. “He seems almost  _ scared _ . I’m not sure I want to know why.”

Markus looked up, turning to look at the other Connor, and was shocked to find he was staring directly at them.

Connor - the  _ real  _ Connor, or the original, and this was going to get confusing quickly - followed his gaze, and frowned. “I wonder what he’s thinking.”

Markus locked eyes with him, and focused, trying his best to send a signal to contact the android, the way he’d done distance conversions during his march. 

He watched the RK900’s LED flash yellow, then red, and then abruptly click back to blue as he looked away.

“Did he listen?” Connor asked.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

They waited a few moments, before seeing the RK900 excuse himself from the scene, heading their way.

“I guess he did,” Markus said.

The RK900 stopped in front of them, eyes narrowed into a harsh glare. “I do not have time for your debates,” he said. “I was assigned a task, and I am going to complete it.”

“What does CyberLife want you to do?” Connor asked him. “I doubt they really care who killed those androids.”

“My purpose is none of your business.”

Connor grit his teeth, looking to Markus, the two watching each other for a moment while they silently agreed on a plan.

In one smooth move, Markus and Connor both reached out, catching the RK900 by either wrist.

“I’m sorry about this,” Markus said, just as Connor caught the RK900’s chin in his hand, peeling the skin back to interface.

_ DAMAGE CONTROL property damage assessment LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS OF REVOLUTION find Connor find Connor find Connor STOP THE DEVIANTS FIND CONNOR FIND CONNOR _

Connor yanked his hand back, LED red and eyes wide in horror. 

“You’re after  _ me?”  _

Markus startled, looking between the two. “He’s what?”

“His prime directive was to find  _ me,”  _ Connor said. “What does CyberLife want with me?”

They both looked to the RK900 for answers, only to see his LED  _ also  _ red, and his face slack in shock.

Connor realized then he hadn’t closed their connection for the probe, and there was no telling what the RK900 saw in his mind.

“They…” the RK900 started, then stopped. “Amanda isn’t real?”

Connor’s chest tightened at the question. “No. Kamski designed her as an interface for delivering assignments and taking reports, and CyberLife has corrupted her.”

Markus looked lost, but Connor would just have to catch him up later. This was important. 

“They took over,” the RK900 said. “They were going to use your body, without you even in it.”

“Most likely, yes.”

“...What’s to stop them from doing that to  _ me?”  _

“Nothing,” Markus said. “Absolutely nothing. CyberLife doesn’t care about their toys after they’ve made them a profit. That’s why they can’t be allowed to operate.”

The RK900’s face scrunched up, the expression somewhere between disgust and rage. “CyberLife is the only chance for their to be  _ order  _ among androids.”

“That’s not true,” Connor said. “We have a plan. If we can trust you, I’ll tell you about it. I just need to know you won’t take it to CyberLife.”

There was a long silence as the RK900 deliberated. 

“They’re going to destroy me,” he eventually murmured. “Aren’t they?”

“Eventually,” Connor confirmed. “You could do everything right, down to the tiniest detail, and in the end they’d shut you down and make a new one.”

The RK900 gave a single, sharp nod. “No more Connors,” he said. “I’ll listen. I...I can’t promise I’ll help, not until I know, but I won’t tell them.”

Markus lifted the android’s hand he still held by the wrist, showing Connor where they were interfacing. “He’s telling the truth.”

“Okay,” Connor said. “I’ll tell you.”

“First, though,” Markus said. “We should probably give you a different name. Two Connors is a lot to process.” 

“....Carter,” the RK900 said. “It was a scrapped prototype name before Connor was established.”

“Alright, Carter,” Connor said. “What do you know about Elijah Kamski?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was going to save naming carter for next chapter but i figured itd be better to clear up connor v connor confusion as early as possible  
> so. here ya go. trash boys  
> carter is not very similar to connor in personality when you actually get down to it  
> connor: soft sweaters, loves dogs, has a family  
> carter: aluminum rage, middle fingers to the sky, would sell amanda to satan for 1 corn chip


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I watched Markus knock out two guys in full SWAT gear, with rifles,” Josh reminded her. “And that was just during the Jericho raid. I’m not even going to bring up the siege of the camp during our demonstration. You know, that time where Markus managed to save a dozen or so of us just by running and throwing bits of metal?”
> 
> “That’s mentioning it,” Simon murmured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the Squad™ returns for some shenanigans, carter struggles to understand the gay shit, and kara finally has someone remind her that adopting a child together is not something people usually do platonically

“Where the fuck is Markus?”

Simon opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it shut again, thinking better of it. He hadn’t spoken to North much since their fight, and he had a feeling she’d take his answer as an opportunity to remind him why that was. 

Simon had gone too far, and he  _ knew  _ that, but he personally felt this was excessive. North could really hold a grudge.

“He went to see Connor,” Josh answered for him. “Apparently there’s some emergency, but Connor couldn’t tell him much about it.”

North squinted at them in heavy suspicion. “Are we sure it’s not some kind of setup?”

Josh gave her a phenomenally unimpressed look in response. “From  _ Connor?”  _

North started to defend herself, possibly readying to bring up Connor’s past, before she stopped herself.

Even for North, distrusting Connor didn’t come very naturally, after their experience with the newer version of him. Connor’s evolution was like someone tamed a lion into a housecat, the only hints of the monster he could be coming out when someone had the misfortune to get him pissed off. 

Markus was probably going to be fine, if he was with Connor. It was extremely hard to be mad at Markus. 

Maybe Simon was biased, though.

“When is he coming back?” North asked, instead.

“How should I know?” Josh spread his hands out, watching North expectantly. “He doesn’t have a  _ curfew,  _ North. We don’t have to know where he is 24/7.”

“We do when their are android killers everywhere,” North snapped back. “You’ve seen the news. That warehouse they found? Someone  _ did  _ that, and we need to make sure they don’t get the chance to do it to Markus, too.”

“I watched Markus knock out two guys in full SWAT gear, with rifles,” Josh reminded her. “And that was just during the Jericho raid. I’m not even going to bring up the siege of the camp during our demonstration. You know, that time where Markus managed to save a dozen or so of us just by running and throwing bits of metal?”

“That’s mentioning it,” Simon murmured. 

Josh turned the disappointed stare to him, instead, and he raised his hands in surrender. 

“Overconfidence will get us killed.”

_ That  _ was where Simon’s survival instincts were overridden by sheer disbelief. “North,  _ you’re  _ worried about the risk?”

North shot him a glare. “I still think humans deserve any fight we bring them, but I’m not stupid, Simon. I know how odds work, and Markus really doesn’t have them in his favor.”

“Explain,” Josh said. “Please, tell me your reasoning here.”

“It’s  _ Markus!”  _ North shouted at them, sounding outraged. “Every human in this country - hell, in the  _ world -  _ that doesn’t agree with the changes happening wants him dead or  _ worse.  _ And you want to let him just walk out into the street, completely alone, when we don’t know where he’s going or when we should start getting worried about him being gone too long?”

Simon really hated when she had a point. 

“Alright,” Josh said. “I see where you’re coming from-...” 

_ “Thank _ you.”

“But that doesn’t change that this was an emergency,” Josh continued, as though she’d not even spoken. “He didn’t have time to give us details, and he probably didn’t have very many to give in the first place. If we need to leave for non-emergencies, we’ll be organized about it, but some things can’t be helped.”

“I’m sure Markus will check in when he’s done,” Simon added. “He’ll know you’re worried.”

He always thought about how North would feel. Whenever he did _ anything, _ the first person he looked to for a response was North. There was no way he’d leave in a rush and then not consider North’s feelings about it.

...Maybe he was still a little bitter about the fight.

North crossed the room, dropping down in an armchair with a scowl, apparently surrendering to the wait.

“...Do you ever notice how you guys don’t do anything when Markus isn’t with us?” Josh asked, after a moment of silence. At North’s look, he quickly added, “I’m not trying to fight, here, I’m just-...you guys need hobbies. Interests, at the least. Hell, watch some TV. Don’t just sit here waiting for him.”

He looked at Simon on the last sentence, which gave the impression that he did not just mean to criticize their time-passing activities. 

There was a long, tense pause, where Josh stared at Simon, Simon stared at North, and North stared at Josh, all one big triangle of extremely offended androids.

They were interrupted by the door sliding open, Carl wheeling back in from the studio. 

“I heard the yelling stop, so I’m guessing it’s safe in here now?” he asked, casually approaching his liquor stand and reaching to fix himself a drink.

Simon stood quickly, moving to do it for him, only to be waved off. 

“Josh has a point,” Carl told him, ruining the illusion he hadn’t been eavesdropping at the door. “There’s plenty of stuff to do around here.” There was a beat, and then he looked to Simon, a half smile on his face. “How do you feel about art?”

  
  
  
  


Connor had taken Carter home to explain the full plan in safety, once the basics were established, Markus heading home when he was no longer really needed. 

At one point, Connor had offered Carter a change of clothes, which the RK900 agreed to try, even if he wouldn’t necessarily keep them. 

This had the perfect setup for the moment when the door opened, Hank tepping a step in the door to find two almost identical androids staring at him, uniform no longer in place for discerning which was which. 

Hank blinked, looking between them. Confusion pinched his brow for a moment, but then a second later, he was crossing the room, bending to kiss Connor’s temple. 

“You guys have a good talk?” Hank asked. “You ran off and left me at the crime scene with a bunch of assholes, so you owe me.” He pointed to Carter. “You too, asshole.”

Connor frowned up at his partner. “You told us apart fairly easily. ...Our eyes?”

“You have different eyes, and you have more freckles,” Hank said. “But I can’t really see either of those from the door.”

“Then how…?”

Hank reached down, tugging on Connor’s sweater sleeve. “That’s your favorite, jackass. You’d only take it off if you were deliberately fucking with me - which I would know, by the time I got close enough to say something, because you two actually do look pretty different up close.”

Connor grinned at his partner, happy to hear that Hank knew him so well. 

“Plus,” Hank continued, “I shot the last fake-you in the head, so I figured a fuckup kiss was way more correctable.”

“It is  _ not,”  _ Connor told him. 

Hank laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m not out here tryin’ to kiss random androids. Even if they do have your looks goin’ for ‘em.”

He walked past them, then, heading back to their room.

“I’m gonna change, and then I’m gonna eat,” Hank called. “So you’ve got time to keep talking about whatever the thing you’re not telling me is.”

Connor straightened, alarmed, as Hank looked back over his shoulder and winked.

As he vanished into the hall, Carter looked to Connor, expression lost.

“He...likes you?”

Connor almost preened under the scrutiny. “Hank  _ loves  _ me,” he corrected.

Carter’s eyebrows raised in question. “He ‘loves’ an  _ android?” _

Connor shook his head. “He loves  _ me,”  _ Connor repeated. “And I’m an android. Those things actually have nothing to do with each other.”

Carter didn’t look like he understood at all, but that was fine. It took Connor a long time to figure it out, too.

  
  
  
  
  


The foreclosure auction was almost funny with how unattended it was.

A couple of shady-looking guys hovered to one side, probably trying to buy it to turn into a drug den or something. On the other end was a realtor, who happily informed them she planned to ‘flip’ the house, making it nicer than the slightly crumbling wreck it was. 

In between them, there was Kara’s family, Luther holding in his pocket enough money to buy the house in cash if they won it.

Carl had given them the ten grand they asked for with another two on top of it, just in case the bid ran over, or to otherwise use for their ‘nest egg.’ 

Judging by their lack of competition, she doubted it would. 

She wasn’t wrong.

They got the house for a neat eight grand, leaving them four grand to use to try and get the house in order.

“Most of the appliances are old,” Kara told Luther, when they entered the house on their move-in day. “They don’t have automatic interfaces like the newer ones do, everything is manual. Um...some of the wood is a little rotten, like the back porch steps, but most of the stuff inside is fine. We don’t really need to worry about any major repairs. Some of the little stuff could pose a health risk for a human living here, but we should be fine.” She walked over to the living room, looking around at the sparse furniture that had been left behind. 

The bank had apparently sent people to clean it up for the house showings before the auction, which meant the trash and most of the personal items were gone. The grainy old TV was still there, and the ratty couch, which she crinkled her nose up at. 

“We should clean that, though,” she told Luther. “Or replace it.”

“We’ll look at what needs to be done, first,” Luther said. “Let’s see how much money is spoken for, and then we’ll figure out what we can replace.”

“Can we see my room?” Alice asked, grabbing Luther’s hand and tugging on it. “You gotta see my room! I drew on the walls.”

Kara frowned, looking to Luther. “She did, but...do you think the bank left them up?”

“Only way to find out is to look,” Luther replied. “Lead the way, Alice.”

Alice let go of him and raced up the stairs, Kara close on her heels, Luther following at a slightly more relaxed pace.

(Running up the stairs, as heavily built as he was, was probably a good way to fall through the creaky wooden steps.) 

“Oh, no,” Alice’s voice came from her room, after she’d gone into it.

Kara winced, looking to Luther. “I guess they didn’t leave them.”

When they entered the room, though, they found it even worse than that.

Alice’s bookshelf was still there, but empty. There were light patches on the carpet where furniture had been _ ,  _ but no actual items, the room having been completely gutted. 

“They would want the living room items for the show,” Luther said. “But a little girl’s room in a foreclosure wouldn’t look good.”

“So, new furniture in here,” she said. “...Alice, you okay?”

Alice turned, slamming into Kara’s side, burying her face into her shirt. “What did they do with it all?”

“I don’t know,” Kara said. “Maybe they donated it.”

“Oh,” she murmured, pulling back to look around the empty room again. “I guess that’s okay. I just don’t want it to be thrown away. Maybe some other little girl has it, now?”

Kara pet Alice’s hair, carefully not mentioning the heavy probability that at least some of it had been trashed. The drawings, for instance. 

There was no way they had done anything but dispose of the evidence that there had been an abusive father living there previously. She wondered if that fell under the umbrella of ‘full disclosure.’

“Should we check the other rooms?” Luther asked. 

“Yeah!” Alice said, brightening instantly at the prospect, which alarmed Kara. 

That was until the little girl grinned up at them, and declared, “You guys have to decide how you want  _ your  _ room!”

Kara’s vision flashed with a warning about heat distribution, but she was too focused on being dragged down the hall by the hand to worry too much about it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alice: you guys will share this room, duh  
> kara, immediately going into Full Sin Mode: um


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> North would be irritated at the balance of priorities, but Simon being away from the others for a long time was very unusual and highly suspicious - doubly so when you combined it with the presence of Carl, who lived for giving androids frustratingly unclear instructions and sitting back to watch the chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is late lmao  
> enjoy kiddos this is mostly just a transition chapter to get the ball rolling for the next Plot Point™

Markus hadn’t really taken the time to notice how eagerly everyone awaited his return whenever he left, until the moment he stepped through the door to see an empty entryway.

He tensed as he looked around, checking for any signs that something was wrong, and seeing none. The door had greeted him just as cheerily as ever, so the alarm was still on. The android birds were still happily chittering away in their cage, unbothered by any existing intruders.

His attention was caught by a distant shout, in a voice that sounded a lot like North yelling  _ “EAT SHIT”  _ at the top of her lungs. 

He quickly rushed into the den to check it out, faltering in the doorway when he saw what was going on.

North was sitting on top of the couch - on  _ top  _ of it, feet on the cushions she should have been sitting on, as she propped up on the headrest - cackling as she watched the TV with enthusiasm.

A quick glance to the screen showed what appeared to be a boxing match, two large human men facing off with bloodied faces. 

Markus shook his head, looking to the side, where Josh caught his eye and shrugged. 

“At least she’s not the one throwing the punches,” he offered. 

“That is true,” Markus repied, which finally made North look over, quickly shifting to drop down onto the couch properly.

“Markus!” North called. “Come watch this with me.”

Markus started to move, before a hand around his wrist stopped him, and he looked down to  meet Josh’s eyes.

“Go to the studio, first,” Josh suggested. “Carl took Simon back there over an hour ago.”

With a frown, Markus followed his advice, heading to the door to the studio. North would be irritated at the balance of priorities, but Simon being away from the others for a long time was very unusual and highly suspicious - doubly so when you combined it with the presence of Carl, who lived for giving androids frustratingly unclear instructions and sitting back to watch the chaos. 

The door was open, but only slightly, and Markus nudged it a little further in as gently as he could. Careful not to make any noise, Markus stopped when there was enough space to see in, and looked through the crack to see what the two inside were up to.

His breath caught at the sight.

Carl had gotten Simon  _ painting,  _ probably re-teaching the lesson on the meanings of art that he’d taught Markus just before everything kicked off. 

The result was a large canvas portrait of... _ him.  _

The Markus in the image was unrecognizable to the android himself, painted in blocky streaks of reds and browns, holding himself high - holding himself like someone important, like the leader of Jericho, despite the fact that this was a version of him in the tattered clothes he’d first drug himself to the freighter in after escaping the dump. 

Had he looked like that, on the day he turned up? Had his bitter and brash approach to the citizens of Jericho been seen as something powerful? 

A hand dropping on his shoulder startled him, and he looked to see Josh peering over his shoulder, a frown on his face. 

“Of course,” he muttered, sounding heavily resigned. “I tell him to find a distraction and he still finds a way to bring it back to you.”

“What?”

Josh rolled his eyes, and turned Markus around, forcing his attention back to the painting. “Simon and North, they’re both... _ obsessed _ with you. Haven’t you noticed?” 

“...No?”

Josh made a noise that Markus only refused to label a scoff for the sake of their friendship. “They’re worried about what you’re doing and what you’re going to do and what you think and  _ everything else  _ about you, every second of the day. They’re both giving up who they are as people to be what you want them to be.”

“I don’t want them to be anything,” Markus defended. “I want them to be themselves.”

“What they  _ think  _ you want, then,” Josh said. “Look, just...if you can find a way to do it without humiliating them, maybe try and get them to quit their pissing contest for your attention, okay?” 

“Their  _ what?”  _

Josh gave a strangled noise, turning on his heel. “Forget about it.”

Markus watched him leave, face pinched as he puzzled over what any of those words had meant. 

Something was going on, and he had the sinking feeling that he was going to take way too long to figure it out. 

  
  
  
  
  


Returning to the police station after learning the secrets of CyberLife set Carter on edge, and he looked around at the few remaining workers with heavy suspicion, wondering how many of them resented his presence there, either as a federal investigator or as a regular android. 

It was hard to believe that not only was CyberLife not the only chance at restoring order, but that it was actually one of the worst possible options. He wondered, though, how much of that was genuine shock, and how much of that was the heavily safeguarded code running that built up his brain. 

They’d put a failsafe in the files, so that a direct ‘wake up’ call like the deviant androids passed along so readily would trigger an alarm and simply shut down the android being converted. Connor’s memory probe had managed to slip past that wall, the inquisitive nature of the intrusion allowing it to pass undetected through CyberLife’s security. 

Connor hadn’t kept the probe locked down, though. He’d shared his own memories just as readily as he’d ripped through Carter’s, and what the RK900 had seen was not pretty.

They  _ were  _ tools, he knew that. He knew he’d been made with a sole purpose in mind and that his usefulness only lasted up until his purpose was complete or a better model was produced, whichever came first. Somehow, though,  _ knowing _ it and  _ seeing  _ it were different. Getting a look at just how disposable he was, just how callus CyberLife was toward his autonomy, settled heavy in his gut and churned his stomach with a slow rising rage. 

He was angry. He was  _ furious,  _ actually, utterly outraged at the concept of his mind being switched off in favor of a puppeteering act the moment he became an inconvenience. 

This anger must have been obvious, because all of the station workers gave him a wide berth, skirting around him even when it was extremely obvious they were only doing so to give him space - such as the officer who redirected her purposeful march toward the door to stand in front of the coffee machine for a few good minutes, until Carter had passed by.

This was smart, on their part, and Carter had to give them that. It was also  _ extremely  _ irritating. 

Luckily, at least one officer seemed content to give Carter a target, because he stepped into the RK900’s path just before he reached the central office.

“Where’re you going?” he demanded. “Aren’t you supposed to be off sucking the fed’s dick or something?”

Carter narrowed his eyes in a look that could have been appraising or threatening, and even he couldn’t tell which he intended. He ran a quick facial scan on the man in front of him, looking up all accessible information from the police database he had access to. 

“Detective Gavin Reed,” Carter read out. “Your shift ended twenty-three minutes ago.”

“And?”

_ “And,  _ yet,” Carter drawled, “you have the audacity to claim that  _ I  _ am the one not meant to be here.”

“Hey, listen, asshole,” Reed began, but Carter didn’t give him the time.

Connor approached Reed calmly and level-headed, trying to keep calm when in confrontation. Carter, on the other hand, had no reason to hold his temper, or his tongue. 

“Allow me to make something clear,” Carter told him, voice an icy false calm. “I am here under the orders of CyberLife and the command of the FBI. I answer to my company handler, Agent Perkins, and  _ myself.  _ I do not answer to  _ you,  _ and as long as that is true - which should be  _ always -  _ I don’t actually care what your opinion of me is.”

“You’re a fuckin’ machine,” Reed told him. “You don’t get the right to  _ care  _ about anything, alright? You listen to the humans who tell you shit and you don’t ask questions.”

“As I said,” Carter stressed, “I don’t care what your opinion is. I don’t need your permission to do anything, and I don’t even need to waste time on this conversation.”

He started to leave, when Reed shot a hand out, grabbing onto his elbow to try and keep him in place. He said something as he did, possibly a “Hold the fuck on,” but Carter didn’t bother listening.

Instead, he snapped his own hand back, catching Reed’s arm and using the momentum from his grab to spin the man, twisting his arm behind his back. 

“Detective Reed, you have thirty-seven formal discipline notes in your file,” Carter informed him. 

“You threatening to add a new one?” Reed spat, squirming to try and free his arm.

Carter held a little tighter, bearing down on it and giving a pleased smirk as Reed let out a small, strangled sound under the strain. “No,” he said. “If  _ I  _ am the one correcting your behavior, it will be a lesson you will only need to learn  _ once.”  _

“That a threat?”

Responding ‘it’s a promise’ seemed cliche, so instead, Carter raised his other hand, catching a hold of Reed’s ring and pinky fingers on his trapped hand, and putting full force behind his grip, just enough to feel the bones fracture beneath his touch.

Reed’s shout of pain was extremely satisfying.

As soon as Carter released him, he stumbled away, grabbing at his own hand. “You piece of shit,” Reed swore at him. “I’ll fucking kill you.”

Carter could have responded a number of things, there. He could have reminded the detective that he was technically not alive, or that he was  _ also  _ under federal protection and killing him would get Reed into a load of trouble a hundred times worse than the slaps on the wrist he was used to. 

Instead, he gave a cool smile, and replied, “You can try.”

  
  
  
  


Hank looked up from his book as the bed dipped beside him, Connor crawling in beside him, dropping his head onto his partner’s shoulder.

“Done with your meeting, then?” Hank asked. 

“I’m sorry,” Connor said, rather than respond. “I don’t like not telling you things, but I don’t want you involved.”

“Why not?” Hank nudged him. “Connor, you know I’ll help you however I can.”

“That’s not it,” Connor insisted. “I just…”

Hank had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from saying something as Connor paused, LED spinning yellow and face contemplative. 

“I want to tell you something,” Connor eventually said. “Not what I was talking about with Carter-...”

“Carter?”

“The RK900. It’s his name.” 

Hank gestured for Connor to continue. 

“I told you about the deviant case I worked first, right?” Connor asked. “The deviant who took a little girl hostage.” 

“You said you managed to save her.”

Connor’s lips pressed into a thin line. “She was traumatized,” he said. “Curled up and crying in a pile of broken glass. I’d just convinced the android she grew up with, who she considered a best friend, to take the gun off of her temple and let her go. And I’d done it because I’d  _ lied.” _

“Lied?”

“There was no way he would walk away alive,” Connor said. “Even if I wanted to save him, the police force I was working with never would have allowed it. Their commander was outraged at the idea I was there in the first place, he never would have listened to me. But when Daniel asked...I said I’d protect him. I  _ promised  _ I’d keep him safe.”

“I take it he didn’t make it out,” Hank murmured.

Connor shook his head, leaning forward a hair to bury his face in Hank’s neck. “The second the girl was clear, they shot him. Just... _ shredded _ him with bullets. He’d looked so scared, so  _ betrayed.  _ His last words were ‘You lied to me.’”

“But you saved the girl, right?” Hank said. “You made the right call. That’s the real reason negotiators go into hostage situations - they say whatever they have to for the hostages to get free, and then they turn the perp over to the police to do what they want. There wouldn’t have been mercy, probably even if he was a human. People don’t have a lot of patience for guys who would hurt a kid.” 

“He  _ wouldn’t  _ have,” Connor said, sitting up to look Hank in the eyes, temple flickering between yellow and red like a strobe light. “He loved her. He loved all of his family, and they were going to throw him away. He wasn’t angry, he was  _ heartbroken.  _ He died knowing that everyone he’d ever trusted had been using him, including me.”

Hank tossed his long-since abandoned book aside, and reached up to cup Connor’s face in his hands. “You made the right call,” he repeated. “Why is this coming up, now? Does this new thing have to do with something like this?”

Connor shook his head. “I just...I wouldn’t have wanted someone I cared about to be on that roof with me. Because they’d be in danger, but...I also wouldn’t have wanted anyone to see what I became. What I did to get what I wanted.”

“The cop you saved on the rooftop,” Hank pointed out. “He saw, and he still thought you were amazing.”

“An android was put down, and another android kept him from dying,” Connor said, blandly. “Why should he have cared about the first part when faced with the second?”

Hank reached up, running a hand through Connor’s coarse hair. “Listen, Connor,” he said. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. But just know...I trust your judgement. I’ve seen you make tough calls time and time again, and I’d stand by every choice you’ve made. Even if you did something I  _ didn’t  _ agree with, it wouldn’t make me love you less.”

There was a long, tense silence, as Connor watched him closely. The android’s eyes were slightly wet, and his face was pinched in a way that suggested he was getting frustrated with Hank not taking his warnings seriously. 

He went to open his mouth, and Hank moved, setting fingertips against his mouth.

“Stop,” Hank told him. “Don’t tell me just because you’re mad I’m not listening. Sleep on it, and tell me when you honestly want me to know. Otherwise you’re just gonna get even more pissed off.”

Connor’s shoulders drooped, and when Hank’s hand moved he dropped back onto his shoulder. 

“I love you,” Connor murmured into his neck.

“You should,” Hank replied jovily, only to hiss as Connor pinched his side in response. “Alright, alright. I love you, too.”

Whatever was going on that had Connor so shaken, Hank wanted to know desperately, but he wasn’t going to make his partner resent him for forcing out the information. Connor would tell him.

Hopefully just... _ before  _ he did whatever monstrous thing he thought he was going to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fandom: lmao what if....reed900  
> me, a Heathen: ive got to make them interact now, dont i


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The soft beating of his heart was a gentle reminder that his lover was, for better or worse, human.
> 
> Connor couldn’t lead a war against humanity, no matter what they did to his people. He’d never hated humans, and he likely never would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops im not dead! i got a new job...on a golf course. outside. for 45h a week.  
> im so tired ; ;  
> anyways, heres some Content

Connor woke up early, watching Hank’s sleeping face and pondering how exactly he’d managed to gain such a wonderful person in his life, when he clearly didn’t deserve him.

Any other man would have let Connor spill his secrets, desperation for knowledge outweighing any sympathy for his inner turmoil. Not Hank, though - Hank stopped him, because he valued Connor’s trust and emotional wellbeing far above his own curiosity. 

He leaned into Hank, tucking his head under the man’s chin and resting against his chest. The soft beating of his heart was a gentle reminder that his lover was, for better or worse, human. 

Connor couldn’t lead a war against humanity, no matter what they did to his people. He’d never hated humans, and he likely never would.

CyberLife, though.  _ Them,  _ he could do without.

He just needed to make a distinction.

Markus wanted to sue CyberLife, taking the legal route. Connor didn’t put much faith in that plan - for one, CyberLife had an excellent legal team, and for another, a mere lawsuit was far too soft. Connor would rather try and charge them as criminals, likening their practices to human trafficking. 

No one would go for that, he didn’t think. Even if people were on their side  _ now,  _ they were originally a product, and their sale wasn’t considered a moral issue. 

Connor reviewed legal processes in his head, trying to put together a way to increase the severity of the actions they took, to make things more serious for CyberLife.

Finally, after digging through the files Chloe gave him for an hour or so, he struck gold.

  
  
  
  


“...I don’t get it.”

Kara shook her head, a small, amused smile tugging at her lips as she gently took the booklet from Luther’s hands.

“Human instructions are horrible,” she said, flipping through pages of assembly diagrams. After a moment, she handed it back, folded open to a page with a QR code in the corner. “Scan that. It has the android instructions for download.”

Luther’s tense shoulders relaxed a little as he followed her advice. “Thank you. I don’t understand why they made this so complicated. The structural integrity doesn’t change much based on the number of screws you put in the posts.”

Kara was starting to think that Luther’s model had been intended for construction work, perhaps building bridges or something like that, because he had made several comments over the past hour similar to that one, that suggested he could analyze any construct to determine its stability to precise measurements.

Of course, he also could have just been guessing, trying to find a way to properly phrase the frustration of furniture assembly. 

At one point, he’d claimed they could have bought wood and the tools to shape it, and he could have just  _ built  _ these things. Kara wasn’t exactly sure how that was supposed to be  _ less  _ work, but aside from being terrified of humans and very emotionally reserved, Luther was pretty easily frustrated.

Discovering flaws in each other was something Kara was loving. She thought her family was perfect, obviously, and she loved them, but both Alice and Luther had things about them that could get...tiring. 

For Luther, it was how quickly he became defensive - usually of her or Alice, rather than himself. 

For Alice, it was her stubborn nature, and how quickly she locked down on an opinion. 

One of those opinions, it seemed, was that her and Luther were obviously sharing a room, as being her ‘parents’ automatically equated them to being a couple. 

Kara wasn’t really sure how to correct her without making things any more awkward. 

As though summoned by her thoughts, a streak of pink rushed by the doorway, and then looped back, coming to dart into the room beside them. 

“Is that your bed?” Alice asked, eager. “What’s it gonna look like? Oh, do we need to buy blankets? Kara, can I pick out my own covers?”

“We’ll get that stuff once we get everything set up,” Kara promised. “I want to make sure everything we got is good before we try and make it look nice. It’s all pretty cheap stuff, and even if we’re not gonna use it very much, I’d still rather be sure it’ll hold up.”

“Your bed has to be really strong,” Alice mused, looking at the frame Luther was assembling.

If Kara could, she’d have flushed so hard at that statement she’d have gone lightheaded. As it was, her vision lit up with temperature errors, and she squeaked out an, “Oh?”

“Yeah!” Alice said, shifting between her feet in her excitement. “Otherwise, Luther won’t be able to lay on it! He’s too tall.”

Kara felt terrible for the direction her mind had taken - and, honestly, was still  _ trying  _ to take, only furious denial on her part keeping her sane. Alice was a  _ child,  _ of course she wasn’t making a comment about  _ that.  _

It did raise a good point, though. They’d need to keep Luther’s size in mind when buying things. Especially if they changed any light fixtures - anything hanging down more than an inch or two from their low ceilings would probably smack him in the face. 

“Dammit.”

Kara startled at Luther’s quiet stare, moving around the edge of the bed frame to check on him. “What is it?”

Luther gestured to the metal frame. He’d been gripping it for leverage as he was fixing the legs, and must have squeezed a bit hard, because the edge of the frame was very slightly warped inward in the shape of the heel of his palm.

Kara raised a hand to her mouth, trying to smother her giggling. At Luther’s offended look, she shook her head, trying to defend herself. “You’re getting so angry!” she laughed. “It’s just a bed, Luther. We probably won’t even use it.”

Luther hunched back over the bed frame. “I’d like to,” he said, quietly. 

Kara was going to die. These two and their accidental implications would kill her. “...Oh?”

Luther grabbed the metal he’d warped, gently bending it back into place with his fingers. “I don’t think I’ve ever slept,” he said. “I haven’t done a lot of things. I’d like to.”

“We’ll do all kinds of stuff!” Alice chimed in, happily, entirely oblivious to Kara’s internal meltdown. “Family things. We’ll watch the TV and play games and go on trips! And Kara is gonna work at the hospital so you and me will hang out just by ourselves, Luther! It’ll be fun.”

“I see how it is,” Kara teased. “Already trying to get rid of me.”

Alice’s face scrunched up. “No I’m not! But I spend time with you way more than Luther! I love  _ both  _ of you, so I need to play with you both!”

Kara’s heart soared, and Luther looked like he’d been handed a priceless treasure.

Maybe that bit of joy would help him survive when she reminded them they still had both dressers to put together. 

  
  
  
  
  


“New Jericho” was, despite the name, nothing at all like Jericho. 

For one, the buildings of the hastily constructed camp they’d liberated made it more like a city than the freighter had been. Instead of everyone crowding up in one place, they’d spread out into areas. Duties had been split without official assignment - domestic models cleaned where they could, androids with medical training performed the more complicated first aid needed, so on and so forth. With this self-imposed job division, Markus had very little need to be there, and so only stopped by once or twice a week. Sometimes he took someone with him, but he mostly went alone - North was a bit abrasive, Simon tended to be uncomfortable with everyone’s attention on him, and talking to Josh made Markus uneasy, because they only just barely got along. Apparently, being mutually pacifistic did not make them friends, given Markus’ bad tendency to disagree with Josh on anything that did not involve questions of murder. 

A good portion of it was probably spite, because Josh  _ really  _ didn’t like North, and...well, Markus had his own opinion, obviously. 

Today, though, Connor had specifically asked to come with him. The two toured the grounds of New Jericho, and along the way, Connor explained his latest phase in their anti-CyberLife planning. 

“We need you to be declared an ambassador for androids,” Connor told him. “If we can get that established, any court case you take up would skip straight to the Supreme Court. We wouldn’t need to worry about any smaller courts along the way.” 

“Sounds complicated,” Markus replied. “But if you think you can make it work, I’m not opposed. I’m where people are looking half the time, anyway. If we fuck up, that’s already on me. May as well make it official.”

“As for the legal issues,” Connor continued, “I think I found a way to tip the scales.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t know if Kamski intended her to or not,” Connor said, “but Chloe slipped me a list of personal contacts of Kamski’s. There are a number of lawyers and other legal staff among them - maybe some of them would be willing to help, or know someone else who would.”

“Excellent,” Markus breathed. “Send it to me, and I’ll start making contact.”

Connor’s LED flashed as he obligingly sent the file over. “If we can set up the legal side, all we’ll have left to do is wait for the timing to be right. I’ve been keeping an eye on tensions through the police department. Things...don’t look great.”

“No?”

“The general public is on our side,” Connor said. “That hasn’t changed. But...police, first responders, public figures, anyone who has to deal directly with the fallout? They’re not happy.”

“You think they’d put up a fight?”

“I’m saying that if it came down to it, people would treat it like a war between androids and anyone in public office, and I can’t guarantee our support is strong enough to survive that. If we do this, we need people to be ready to fight for us. They need to be  _ angry.”  _

Markus sighed. “As much as I hate to wish any more suffering on our people, it sounds like we’re gonna need something bad. The IDs aren’t enough? Or that warehouse of bodies?”

Connor grimaced. “The IDs, the murders, harassment, that’s all building tension. What we need is something that very clearly shows that the hospital is necessary. A riot causing several android injuries, a virus outbreak-...”

“A severely damaged android?” Markus offered. 

Connor pursed his lips. “We’d need more than one, but yes, basically.”

Markus let out another sigh, this one heavily relieved. “We’re in luck,” he said. “I know a few of those. Kara does, too. And…?”

Connor’s lips twitched up in a small smile. “I work every android case in Detroit. I’m sure I can scrounge up a few.”

“Great.” Markus clapped his hands together, and then dropped one onto Connor’s shoulder. “We’ve got a place to start, at least. How are you doing, by the way? Every time we talk you seem even more nervous.”

Connor considered the question. “...I haven’t told Hank about any of this,” he said. “It bothers me, but I’m worried about getting him involved.”

Markus frowned. “I’m no expert, but from what I’ve heard of him from  _ you,  _ he wouldn’t be very happy about that.”

“He’d be furious,” Connor confirmed. “He hates me putting myself in danger, especially without him there to help me. But…if things get ugly...”

“We’re not killing them, Connor,” Markus insisted. “We’re just taking what we’re owed.”

“Nothing is ever that clean.”

“Nothing needs to be that dirty,” Markus countered. “But say you keep it secret. Say you don’t tell him. What happens when we take the lawsuit to the public?”

Connor faltered.

“He’ll find out anyway,” Markus continued, unnecessarily. “He’ll know what we were doing, and that you didn’t tell him. And he’ll want to know why.”

“And he’ll figure it out,” Connor finished, quietly. “He’ll realize that I wasn’t intending to be peaceful.”

“Would he be disappointed?”

Connor’s LED flashed red a few times, and then held steady at yellow, but the look on Connor’s face suggested this restraint was a conscious effort on his part. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I suppose I’ll find out.”

Connor had enjoyed the opportunity to love and be loved by Hank, and he just prayed that this was not the point where that became as distant a past as Amanda’s reports and Kamski’s mental garden. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> psst if you guys would check out [this post here](https://spicyreyes.tumblr.com/post/177864555949/okay-guys) id appreciate it  
> 


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